Nights Out at Home - Jay Rayner
A cookbook of recipes Rayner cooks at home, inspired by restaurant versions he’s eaten as a restaurant critic. Each comes with its own story. For example, the recipe for fesenjan is based on the one at Persian Cottage in Middlesborough. It briefly tells the story of the owner’s arrival in the UK, stowed away in the back of a lorry and then seeking asylum here. It’s a good read as might be expected from the UK’s probably best known restaurant critic.
Bethlehem - Fadi Kattan
Lots of Middle Eastern cookbooks around but not too many of Palestinian takes on the subject. And even fewer of “Modern Palestinian” food. Kattan is the chef/owner of Fawda in Bethlehem and also owns Akub in London… Recipes are divided across four main chapters, representing the seasons.
Used books were on sale on the most recent book day, so of course I couldn’t resist:
Cucina Paradiso, the heavenly food of Sicily by Clifford A. Wright
The Herbfarm Cookbook by Jerry Traunfeld
Such emotional attachment to that cookbook! My mother (RIP) loved visiting JT’s herb farm. I bought two copies of the cookbook, one for each of us. Regrettably, her cooking years were behind us by the time I bought the book(s), and mine were just beginning. Still, it’s an attachment I find hard let to go…
Enjoy!
EYB does a good job of updating us about new books arriving this year. I get a newsletter from Kitchen Arts and Letter who let me know yesterday that Alison Roman and Diana Henry (essays) had books coming out. I already knew D. Lebovitz, Helen Goh, Sami, Dorie and Diane Kochilas have books coming. Today I went to Omnivore Books website and looked at their pre-orders list. I was astounded at the authors I recognized with new books coming. It might be easier to list who doesn’t have new books. In the last 2 or 3 years the bad news was there wasn’t that much that was of interest to me. The good news was there wasn’t much of interest to me (helps the pocketbook). Six Seasons of Pasta by Joshua McFadden has me excited. I have to have David Lebovitz updated Ready For Dessert even though I have the original. I think every new cook should have Samin’s first book so I am looking forward to seeing what’s in her new book. Of course there are a wealth of books by author’s I am not familiar with (yet). It could be an expensive year, to say nothing of the larger home I need to house them. Sigh! Being a cookbook addict is trying.
A used copy of the Farm Journal Pie Cookbook is on its way! I’m excited! Have probably not bought a cookbook for myself in a year or so. While that’s actually a good thing, due to groaning bookshelves, it’s kind of boring, and I’ve missed the searching for the gems I don’t have! So, I’ll add a few here and there. Yay!
I own some Farm Journal Cookbooks. My father was a farmer and my mother purchased a number their cookbooks. She definitely had the pie book.
When I was 10-12, we lived on a farm, and the only reading material we had in the house was the newspaper, Time Magazine and the Farm Journal. (parents had their own popular books of the day) I came to love the FJ, and would always go to the recipe section. I have one of their cookbooks, but will be happy to add the pie book. Some of my relatives were “real” farmers, and I’ll never forget the wondrous breakfasts my auntie laid out - EVERY morning. It was really something and brings happy memories. 
My Aunt Edith lived on a farm in Mississippi. (At 16, she ran away with Wiley, an only child, to get married without her parents’ permission. They moved in with his parents and she lived in that house the rest of her life. Wiley was wonderful, 2 sons.)
She and her mother-in-law made 3 big meals a day, homemade butter, big variety of fresh vegetables they grew.
For breakfast it was either fresh perfect biscuits or homemade yeast rolls … that incredible smell … I loved feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs.
LET’S CONTINUE ON THE NEW THREAD HERE :
